人間失格 : Mine has been a life on much shame.

I loved this novel around the age of 20. This is the most famous and the top seller book since the past in Japan. Although, to tell the truth I don’t know the reason why this novel is sold so much. Because this novel’s story is filled with a dark mood. The significant sentence in this novel is this.

“恥の多い生涯を送ってきました”

“Mine has been a life on much shame”

This translation was from a very famous researcher about Japanese literature. I would like to tell you the meanings of these words.

恥 haji : shame

生涯 syogai : life

You may not be able to imagine what “a life on much shame” is. This sentence is a confession from the main character. However, we know that this confession came from this author’s life. His name is Osamu Dazai.

He had tried to suicide sometimes in his life, and some of them were lovers’ suicide. And eventually he died at the age of 38, with his lover. That affair occurred in Tokyo and also it has been reported in newspapers.

I’m not sure why this novel has been sold so much, however I can say that many Japanese intellectuals have sympathy with this author’s confession. And also it can be said that this confession is an expression from humans’ anxiety itself. In a modern society, everybody feels anxiety, I think. He wrote, “Mine has been a life on much shame.” Yeah, namely, we always fear being embarrassed within a society, the same as this author. 

In this novel, the main character also hates hypocrisy about his life itself. He wanted to live pure in his mind. But it has been difficult. I think many Japanese see the same thing in his mind as their own. 

This novel isn’t a fact, but it reflects the author's life. So, we read this novel as the author’s confession.